I've lived in Germany for two years and contested extensively from there.
It is a completely different ball game.
Take a map of the United States and superimpose it over Western and central
Europe. While you might be able to position it in different directions to
get slightly different results, you could probably find over 50 DX entities
within an area that fit within the confines of the United States boundaries.
Let's flip the argument. To level the playing field, let's just classify
all Western and Central European DX entities as the "United States of Europe"
and not allow them to count as individual DX entities or as points for each
other. I think there would be a huge cry from everybody there, and gigantic
score reductions.
Contesting from Europe is a such a hoot! I used a short, low temporary wire
antenna on 80M and 160M and could easily work 40 to 50 multipliers without
even trying. There is always a plethora of 1 pointers and DX multipliers on
almost every band any time of the day.
We have fifty states within the United States, all of which are somewhat
self-governing democratic republics under a centralized federal government.
I wish CQWW and other major contests could be the same here as they are in
Europe. If every state was a multiplier, we would have rough parity with
Europe and, at least from my perspective of having lived in both Europe and
the
United States, the contest would be better from both sides of the pond.
Paul, K5AF
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